


7:55:46 AM, EDT

by ohtempora



Category: Space Exploration RPF, Space Vehicles
Genre: Gen, NASA, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-17 04:46:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13069431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohtempora/pseuds/ohtempora
Summary: A planet, a recently deceased spacecraft, and an astronomer walk into a bar.





	7:55:46 AM, EDT

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lalalalalawhy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalalalalawhy/gifts).



> happy yuletide, lalalalalawhy! thanks to m. for the beta!

_Hello._

“Hello?”

The man is nervous. He stands, fidgeting with the long ends of his sleeves, with hands that are not used to human motions. It's understandable to be nervous. After all, he's been dead for three hundred and five years.

“Is anyone there?”

_Giovanni._

“Yes? That-- that was my name, yes.”

_We're here so we can welcome a friend._

“But I can't see.”

It's very dark, space. There aren't enough stars in a finite universe to light it all up. There's a lot up for debate in that sentence, except for the darkness. The darkness is absolute.

_Um, we aren't really anywhere._

“I'm sorry.” The astronomer searches for a word. He hasn't had to speak since he died. “But I don't think that's very helpful, sir.”

_It's for the robot._

“I don't--”

_Ah, yes. You've been pretty out of commission._

“The dying did happen. At least it was of old age.” The astronomer pauses. “Well, it was a better way to go than Brahe.”

_Haha._

“But, ah, the robot. What’s a--”

_Wait. Maybe this’ll be easier if we-- hmm._

The astronomer finds himself in a seat. He blinks rapidly, for he can see now, and it’s all strange. Peeling wood walls, and glowing lights, and bottles of alcohol. At least he recognizes those. And glowing light contained in the shape of man, wiping down the counter with a cloth.

_The nice thing about not really being anywhere is you can turn it into somewhere. Nevertheless, it’s coming. You want a drink before it arrives?_

The astronomer says, “I still don’t know who you are.” He remembers his manners. “I am very thirsty, if you don’t mind.”

_My name is Saturn._

A mug of water is pushed at him, and he takes it. It’s heavy ceramic, with decorations he doesn’t recognize. A blue circle, red-ringed, white letters. Tiny stars.

“I studied a planet named Saturn.”

_Yes. I was the god of plenty, Greek and then Roman, and a planet they saw when they looked up at the stars, and then I was just a planet to most. And then they visited me._

“I discovered your moons.”

It hurts his eyes to look at the barkeep, so he doesn’t. He looks around instead. There’s a large box in the corner with buttons. A framed piece of art on the wall of a humanoid shape, covered in some odd material, stepping onto a cratered foreign surface.

 _They discovered even more moons_.

“How long has it been again?”

_About three centuries, give or take. Hold up-- I gotta turn on the radio._

“What’s a radio?”

 _Listen_.

The barkeep fiddles with another, smaller box, making a noise of satisfaction when it starts to make sounds.

 _You listening_?

“We’ve just heard the signal from the spacecraft is gone and within the next 45 seconds, so will be the spacecraft. I hope you’re all as deeply proud of this amazing accomplishment. Congratulations to you all. This has been an incredible mission, an incredible spacecraft, and you’re all an incredible team. I’m going to call this the end of mission. Project manager, off the net.”

_Can you get the door for Cassini, Giovanni?_

“I’m Cassini.”

 _Just get the door_.

The astronomer slides off his stool. He finds the door. He opens it. A creature made of metal rolls in, buzzing. It rolls straight up to the bar.

Putting down the bar, the barkeep says, _My friend._

The creature chirps.

_They’re crying for you, back home on Earth._

A buzz.

 _They said you’re part of the planet you studied. They said thank you_. _I wanted to say the same._

“Ah-- Saturn. And-- your friend.”

_This is your namesake._

The creature chirps, and the astronomer knows that it’s for him. He doesn’t know what to do. He raises his mug.

_Giovanni-- yes, you. The humans built Cassini. They sent it to me, to study me, to send pictures back to Earth for them to look at. To do science, and teach them. They learned. And I was seen._

“That sounds--” the astronomer pauses. “Like a dream. That sounds like a dream. To send a creature that far, and receive messages back with information.”

 _The mission ended. They had to tell Cassini to destruct, to protect my moons. It flew into me and burned up, but they_ feel _it, all those scientists, and it deserves a welcome._

“They named it for me?”

 _They did_.

“People know who I am? They visited you bearing my name?”

 _They did_.

The creature buzzes again. The astronomer puts a hand on it, tentatively, feels cool metal under his fingers.

_They went to the moon. They sent mechanical creatures like this out into the universe. There's one that's left the solar system. The humans put a metal disc on it that plays music._

_“_ What did they name all these creatures?”

_Some for men, some for their old gods, and some for ideas. Cassini went to Saturn. Juno went to Jupiter. Voyager left the solar system. Curiosity is on the surface of Mars._

“The spirit of exploration,” the astronomer murmurs. “What music was on the disc?”

_Centuries of it. Some modern and some old. Some you might even recognize._

The barkeep picks up a cloth again and continues to wipe down glasses. The astronomer stares at his namesake, traces the futuristic contours with his eyes. Three centuries after his death, his fellow scientists built this, and sent it out into the universe, and sent it to its own death so he could meet it, not here but not anywhere.

 _They taught the rover on Mars to sing,_ the barkeep says.

Cassini, his namesake, starts to hum.

“What did they get in return?”

_Discoveries. Pictures. They learned about my rings. Their size, their temperature, what they're made of. Cassini spent a decade with my rings. You noted the division of my rings from the Earth._

“I remember. All that time, squinting up at the sky.”

_Try now._

The barkeep slides a softly glowing tablet across the table. The astronomer expects that it, too, will hurt his eyes, but he can look right at it. There are pictures shown in sharp relief. He touches the tablet tentatively and another picture appears, and then another, close details of the planet he could only see from 1.2 billion kilometers away.

Cassini chirps again, and the astronomer pats it.

“I went blind before I died,” he says. “I couldn't look at the stars anymore, but I wondered what it would sound like. Space.”

 _Close your eyes,_ the barkeep says.

_[Listen](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07966.html). _

**Author's Note:**

> The radio speech is transcribed from the video of the end of the Cassini mission (via the official Twitter account-- oddly emotional. I have a lot of room in my heart for space robots and the humans who send them out into the stars).

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] 7:55:46 AM, EDT](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16113395) by [frecklebombfic (frecklebomb)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frecklebomb/pseuds/frecklebombfic), [idellaphod](https://archiveofourown.org/users/idellaphod/pseuds/idellaphod), [savedby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/savedby/pseuds/savedby)




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